“Heroin use in the Midstate and around the nation has been dubbed an epidemic. Policy makers, law enforcement and advocates have helped bring the issue to the forefront to try to save lives.

But, what if addiction could be treated like the flu? What if it could be stymied before it ever takes a stranglehold on someone’s life?

“One thing people don’t realize is one thing that has probably changed (the) world health outlook of all the things you could imagine is vaccines,” said Kim Janda, professor at the Scripps Research Institute.

So why can’t that same approach be taken to treat and prevent addiction?

“We’ve tried this road where we treat drugs with other drugs and that didn’t work for me … Instead of like these wind-up toys that keep walking into the wall, I thought we should turn the toy around so it could start off in another direction,” he said. “I wanted to come at (addiction) from a different angle.”

Janda thinks vaccines can help, and he says has the research to prove it.”